Home Front China World War II Awareness of the war’s objectives/ Nature China was part of the Allies and the Atlantic Charter of 1941 which stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as the disarmament of aggressor nations. But at the same time, China had to deal with its own problems at home with the threat from Japan and the civil war between Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong. It was understood that the Allies needed China’s alliance for the war effort. And because they had the same enemy, the U.S. aided China, particularly the Nationalists, against the Japanese.
Propaganda Most propaganda in China came after the end of WW2 from the Nationalists or Communists trying to defeat each other.
Direct Contributions to war effort The scale of China’s involvement in the war was massive. Chiang, for example, fielded four million troops at the Nationalist’s height, while China as a whole lost an estimated 14 million in the war. Had China folded, Japan’s capacity to fight the U.S. or even the Soviets would have been vastly amplified. Nationalist Army units were not only uneven in loyalty but also in quality. On paper China had 3.8 million men under arms in 1941. They were organized into 246 "front-line" divisions, with another 70 divisions assigned to rear areas. Perhaps as many as forty Chinese divisions had been equipped with European-manufactured weapons and trained by foreign, particularly German and Soviet, advisers. The rest of the units were under strength and generally untrained. Overall, the Nationalist Army impressed most Western military observers as more reminiscent of a nineteenth- than a twentieth-century army. China suffered the second highest number of casualties of the entire war. Civilians in the occupied territories had to endure many large-scale massacres, including that in Nanking. In a few areas, Japanese forces also unleashed newly developed biological weapons on Chinese civilians leading to an estimated 200,000 dead.[5] Tens of thousands died when Nationalist troops broke the levees of the Yangtze to stop the Japanese advance after the loss of the Chinese capital, Nanking. Millions more Chinese died because of famine during the war.
Cost/benefits of war The China theater was also the most remote from the United States. American supplies and equipment had to endure long sea passages to India for transshipment to China, primarily by airlift. But transports bringing supplies to China had to fly over the Himalayas the so-called Hump whose treacherous air currents and rugged mountains claimed the lives of many American air crews. Despite a backbreaking effort, only a fraction of the supplies necessary to successfully wage a war ever reached southern China. The death of so many Chinese soliders affected farm production. And the Chinese suffered brutal reprisal after the American Doolittle raid on Japan in 1942.
Women and Youth; Case Study: The Najing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre, also known as "The Rape of Nanking," is a rare example of simultaneous gendercide against women and men. It is generally remembered for the invading forces' barbaric treatment of Chinese women. Many thousands of them were killed after gang rape, and tens of thousands of others brutally injured and traumatized. Meanwhile, approximately a quarter of a million defenseless Chinese men were rounded up as prisoners-of-war and murdered en masse, used for bayonet practice, or burned and buried alive.
Japan captured major coastal cities like Shanghai early in the war; cutting the rest of China off from its chief sources of finance and industry. Millions of Chinese moved to remote regions to avoid invasion. Cities like Kunming ballooned with new arrivals. Entire factories and universities were often taken along so the society could still function. Japan replied with hundreds of air raids on the new capital of Chongqing. Although China received much aid from the United States, China did not have sufficient infrastructure to properly arm or even feed its military forces, let alone its civilians. China was divided into three zones, with the Nationalists in the southwest and the Communists led by Mao Zedong (Mao) in control of much of the northwest. Coastal areas were occupied by the Japanese and civilians were treated harshly; young men were drafted into a puppet Chinese army.
Home Front China World War II
Awareness of the war’s objectives/ Nature
China was part of the Allies and the Atlantic Charter of 1941 which stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as the disarmament of aggressor nations.
But at the same time, China had to deal with its own problems at home with the threat from Japan and the civil war between Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong. It was understood that the Allies needed China’s alliance for the war effort. And because they had the same enemy, the U.S. aided China, particularly the Nationalists, against the Japanese.
Propaganda
Most propaganda in China came after the end of WW2 from the Nationalists or Communists trying to defeat each other.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oL4UTRpblj25XmiEIG3Vq511SlQuRf9WCsteSDRKtu786SikqonQBoeKQlIWTyjuzbasEty1t9QkTxstFgP1hznGI7XSIpujOkxp1ndSCK7vpGqHT8nnwdv4FQ
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/sEwEAUVWcgW3xAftF1YONPVslK2HsDuWqQf9KSMDeiXh-QgaS2Zas9BqHiGDJTDTrbG8vIFFoZbrl82IT86T-GVubWMLhfIhmM95n2zOOGiI1qT2lrY_zUODtA
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/MUOoDAHextsjtdvC4BmmG_DijzPpaKGoz411D5gZtbjRbAsrM4tBCq99pNr1yPCf56sn7e8dag5AZkRBEoQufVCTp3vMeBfrbmRkvtoOZxjRaTNjhqkwdiGU2Q
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UFy538qZEoqadZwvw11lj1ToXuQ5hEeF6CjhsY5rV6KgNYoVYmup-FLDBImzgxnWxAeFNUkPe1I5qSOnwdtkfBKk9dHPo1bZ5VdZni8JfFocOU02yjGAZNGNYg
Direct Contributions to war effort
The scale of China’s involvement in the war was massive. Chiang, for example, fielded four million troops at the Nationalist’s height, while China as a whole lost an estimated 14 million in the war. Had China folded, Japan’s capacity to fight the U.S. or even the Soviets would have been vastly amplified.
Nationalist Army units were not only uneven in loyalty but also in quality. On paper China had 3.8 million men under arms in 1941. They were organized into 246 "front-line" divisions, with another 70 divisions assigned to rear areas. Perhaps as many as forty Chinese divisions had been equipped with European-manufactured weapons and trained by foreign, particularly German and Soviet, advisers. The rest of the units were under strength and generally untrained. Overall, the Nationalist Army impressed most Western military observers as more reminiscent of a nineteenth- than a twentieth-century army.
China suffered the second highest number of casualties of the entire war. Civilians in the occupied territories had to endure many large-scale massacres, including that in Nanking. In a few areas, Japanese forces also unleashed newly developed biological weapons on Chinese civilians leading to an estimated 200,000 dead.[5] Tens of thousands died when Nationalist troops broke the levees of the Yangtze to stop the Japanese advance after the loss of the Chinese capital, Nanking. Millions more Chinese died because of famine during the war.
Cost/benefits of war
The China theater was also the most remote from the United States. American supplies and equipment had to endure long sea passages to India for transshipment to China, primarily by airlift. But transports bringing supplies to China had to fly over the Himalayas the so-called Hump whose treacherous air currents and rugged mountains claimed the lives of many American air crews. Despite a backbreaking effort, only a fraction of the supplies necessary to successfully wage a war ever reached southern China. The death of so many Chinese soliders affected farm production. And the Chinese suffered brutal reprisal after the American Doolittle raid on Japan in 1942.
Women and Youth; Case Study: The Najing Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre, also known as "The Rape of Nanking," is a rare example of simultaneous gendercide against women and men. It is generally remembered for the invading forces' barbaric treatment of Chinese women. Many thousands of them were killed after gang rape, and tens of thousands of others brutally injured and traumatized. Meanwhile, approximately a quarter of a million defenseless Chinese men were rounded up as prisoners-of-war and murdered en masse, used for bayonet practice, or burned and buried alive.
Japan captured major coastal cities like Shanghai early in the war; cutting the rest of China off from its chief sources of finance and industry. Millions of Chinese moved to remote regions to avoid invasion. Cities like Kunming ballooned with new arrivals. Entire factories and universities were often taken along so the society could still function. Japan replied with hundreds of air raids on the new capital of Chongqing.
Although China received much aid from the United States, China did not have sufficient infrastructure to properly arm or even feed its military forces, let alone its civilians.
China was divided into three zones, with the Nationalists in the southwest and the Communists led by Mao Zedong (Mao) in control of much of the northwest. Coastal areas were occupied by the Japanese and civilians were treated harshly; young men were drafted into a puppet Chinese army.
Bibliography:
__http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/72-38/72-38.HTM__
__http://www.conservapedia.com/World_War_II_Homefront#China__
http://www.iisg.nl/publications/chineseposters.pdf